In early 1947, a teenage Bedouin herder was looking for a lost goat from his flock when he came upon a cave near the Dead Sea.
Randomly, he threw a stone into the cave and was surprised to hear not the sound of the stone hitting a cave wall but rather the breaking of pottery.
He found a collection of clay jars, some of which were still sealed, containing s ... Show More
Today
The East African Slave Trade
Most people are familiar with the transatlantic slave trade, which enslaved over ten million people over a period of centuries. Fewer people are aware of the other African slave trade, which was centered in Eastern Africa along the Indian Ocean. It was centuries older, lasted dec ... Show More
14m 43s
Feb 2023
The Soul of Music: Rhiannon Giddens excavates the past
This episode is part one of The Soul of Music—Overheard’s four-part series focusing on music, exploration, and Black history. Our guest this week is two-time Grammy award winner Rhiannon Giddens, a singer, songwriter, and banjo and fiddle player. A self-described “armchair histor ... Show More
35m 14s
Dec 2021
The Origins of Life on Earth
<p>Today we’re going back to the beginning – no Romans, Celts, Egyptians or Macedonians in sight. We’re going much further back, covering billions of years of prehistory as we look at the emergence of life on Earth. From the rise of the earliest microscopic membranes to the arriv ... Show More
1h 24m
Jun 2023
Playback: Rooting, from Into the Depths
National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts is inspired by the stories of the Clotilda, a ship that illegally arrived in Mobile, Alabama, in 1860, and of Africatown, created by those on the vessel—a community that still exists today. The archaeologists and divers leading the search ... Show More
44m 52s